Machine for making pile fabrics



Nov. 29, 1949 L. M. BALL. AMY

MACHINE FOR MAKING FILE FABRICS Filed March 12, 1947 lu'ln'bllllnllnfll-ll llll'fllll m vE/v 10k, Leslie MarkBallam lllllllllllllllll A TTOPNE Y- Patented Nov. 29, 1949 2,489,513 MACHINE FOR MAKING PILE FABRICS Leslie Mark Ballamy, Horley, England, assignor, by direct and mesne assignments, to High Speed Machines, London, England, a British company Application March 12, 1947, Serial No. 734,139

In Great Britain March 13, 1946 Claims. (01.:112-79) This invention relates to sewing machines for making pile fabrics, and more particularly to those machines in which a reciprocating sewing needle cooperates with a looper device to form upon a looper member a row of looped stitches which latter are severed in succession by a cutter associated with thev looper device. Such machines are generally known as tufting machines. The invention is however also applicable to ordinary multi-needle sewing machines. It is the object of the invention to provide improvements in tufting machines of the above kind and sewing machines, more particularly in connection with the looper mechanism thereof, in order that the machine may be capable of operating faster and better than those at present in use. A further object is to provide looper mechanism which is relatively simple to manufacture and is capable of being finely adjusted, the improved mechanism being intended more especially for use in machines having a large number of sewing needles operating simultaneously side by side.

According to the invention a sewing machine comprises a plurality of reciprocating needle bars which are operated in a plurality of phases, looper members which move forwards and backwards alongside the needle paths to pick up the needle loops, and drivingmeans arranged to operate the needle bars and looper members in frequency relation so that said looper members operate as a unit to make a plurality ofv movement cycles for each phase cycle of the needle bars.

The invention further provides a tufting machine comprising a plurality of reciprocating needle bars which are operated in a plurality of phases, looper members which move forwards and backwards alongside the needle paths to pick up the needle loops, driving means arranged to operate the needle bars and looper members in frequency relation so that said looper members operate as a unit to make a movement cycle for each phase cycle of the needle bars, and cutter members which cooperate with the loopers to sever the loops disposed thereon.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation showing the principal working parts of a multi-needle bar tufting machine;

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the driving mechanism as seen in the direction of the arrow 11;

1 Figure 3 is a diagram showing the relative positions of a typical needle and its looper member during a complete wo king cycle of the needle; and

I Figure 4 is a view corresponding to Figure .2, but showing an alternative driving mechanism for the looper members and cutters.

It will be understood that in the drawings only sufficient of the structural parts (e. g. the supporting framework) are shown to make clear the working of those parts of the machinecon cerned with the needle bar and looper mechanism.- A base I0 supports a pair of side uprights II and I2 which carry a transverse member I3, This is fitted with a number of guides Hi, the machine illustrated having four, one for each of four vertical needle bars I5, I6, I! and I8, A-multi-throw crankshaft I9 mounted in bearings 20 has four crankpins 2|, 22, 23 and 24 which are coupled by connecting rods 25 with the respective needle bars I5, I6, I! and I8. Each needle bar has at its lower end a transversely extending holder 26 carrying a number of spaced machine needles 21. The backing material to be sewn and tufted is fed by any suitable mechanism (not shown) across the upper surface of a work table 28,.the rows of tufting produced by the needles 2'! thus being spaced substantially equidistantly across the width of said backing material. In order to simplify the balancing of the working parts and make the driving load substantially uniform, the crankpins 2| and 23 are disposed in line and are out of phase with respectto the remaining two crankpins 22-and 24, so that when the needle bars I5 and I'lare rising, the needle bars I6 and I8 are falling, and vice versa. The crankshaft I9 is continuously rotated by a gear wheel 29 from suitable driving means (not shown). The needles 2'! are of the usual type having an eye adjacent the point and each is threaded in the normal manner with yarn. (not shown) fed from the correspondingone of a series of supply bobbins. Each time a needle 21 penetrates the backing material, the yarn is carried through by it and is caught from below by a corresponding looper member which holds the loop until it is later severed by a cutter, forming a pair of ends. The looper members are shown at 30 in Figure 1, each being hook-shaped as seen in Figure 2; they are secured side by.

for pivotal oscillation and carries a series of sim ilar cutters, one for each looper member 30; one

of the cutters is seen at 33 in Figure 2. Each cutter slides against the corresponding looper member so as to shear the yarn loops extending around said looper member. For this purpose the cutter shaft 32 has at one or each end a depending arm 34 which is connected by a link 35 with the lower end of an arm 36 fast upon the looper shaft 3|. Thus as the looper members 30 move backwards (clockwise as viewed in Figure 2), the cutter shaft 32 also moves clockwise,

wheel 44 which is also freely rotatable upon a fixed pin and carries an eccentric 46. The latter is coupled .by a connecting rod 41 with an arm 48 extending from, and fast upon, the looper shaft 3!. The vertical shaft 38 rotates at the same speed as the crankshaft l 9 and as the bevel gear wheels 40, 41 are of equal size, the gear wheel 4'2 also turns at the same speed as the crankshaft 19. The gear wheel 42 is twice the diameter of the gear wheel 44 so that the latter rotates twice for every revolution of the crankshaft, thus causing the looper shaft 3! to oscillate at twice the frequency of the needle bars I5, IS, ll, [8, so that it makes one useful oscillation while .the needle bar is at the lower part Of its stroke, and one idle oscillation while the needle bar is at the upper part ofits stroke. This has several advantages in practice. ,In machines of the multi-needle .bar type it is normally necessary to have a separate set of looper members for each needle bar, properly synchronised therewith. In the present arrangement however the whole of the looper members move as a unit, some being operative while others are oscillating idly. Also in the improved arrangement the looper members have twice the normal speed of travel past the needle, so that the looper member can swing through the yarn loop and engage fully therewith during a very short initial upward movement of the needle, thus enabling the looper mechanism to operate with more certainty than hitherto; also it is found that the customary side recess in the needle is rendered unnecessary, so that the needles are more robust and easier to manufacture.

The approximate relative positions of a needle and its looper at various stages of the needle operating cycle are shown in Figure 3. In the :posi tion a the needle 2! is at the lower end of its stroke having passed through the backing material, Which is indicated by the dotted line 50, the yarn being carried down as shown diagrammatically at 5!; the' looper member 30 is in its extreme right-hand position. As the needle 21 rises, the looper member 30 swings rapidly to the left, its nose passing through the slackening loop of'yarn 52. The first'eXtreme'left-hand position is reached by the looper member when the needle 21" has only arrived at the position 0, and while the needle 21 is still rising to its fully raised position at e the looper member moves back to its right-hand position, the yarn loop being retained by the usual barb-like projection 53 on the nose of the looper member. The needle 2'! now .descends and the looper member 30 moves past the needle track (indicated by the broken line 54),

but as the needle is well out of range the stroke is an idle one. The looper member returns past the needle at h and regains its right-hand position at approximately the same instant as the needle 21 finishes the cycle at the end of its downward stroke.

It will be seen that to produce this effect the looper member must make a complete number of oscillations for each oscillation of the corresponding needle, and this number is usually the same as the number of phases of the crankshaft 19, assuming that the phases are equally spaced. Thus if there are three phases apart, the looper mechanism would normally be driven at three times the frequency of the needle bars, so that each operative oscillation of each .looper member would be followed by two idle oscillations, during which the needle is elevated out ofrange. This arrangement is illustrated in Figure 4, Where the crankshaft l 9a has three crankpins (or series of coaxial crankpins) indicated at 55, 5S and 5?, drivin the needlebars.

looper and cutter shafts as before, the parts' being shown in broken lines.

Although the invention has been described in conjunction with a simple type of tufting machine it will be seen that it may be applied to various forms of machine, either single needle or multi-needle. It is found that the invention is particularly useful in machines of the walking needlebar type where the backing material or material to be sewn is fed past the needles at a continuous rate and, .by rocking the guides M, the needles are caused to travel forwards (with reference to the direction of travel of the backing material) While they are in the material, and backwards when elevated and free.

It will therefore be understood that the machine which has been described is given only by way of example and that various modifications may be made in the design and arrangement of the parts to suit requirements. Although the invention has been developed primarily in connection with tufting machines, it is clearly applicable to multi-needle machines for ordinary sewing where looper members are employed.

What I claim is:

1. In a sewing or tufting machine of the type including a plurality of needles which are reciprocated in a plurality of phases and a like number of oscillatable looper members which are individually and respectively cooperative with said needles for forming loops, the combination with said looper members of a single shaft supporting all of said members for movement together as a unit, and drive means for driving said shaft and looper members in frequency relation with the phases of said needles so that said looper members oscillate for each reciprocation phase of the needles.

2. In a tufting machine of the type including a plurality of needles which are reciprocated in a plurality of phases and a like number of oscillatable looper members which are individually and respectively cooperative with said needles for forming loops. and oscillatable cutter members cooperative with said looper members for severing the loops therearound, the combination with drive means for driving said needles and looper and cutter members in frequency relation with all of said looper and cutter members unitarily oscillating once for each phase of reciprocation of said needles.

3. A tufting machine comprising a plurality of needle bars, needles on said needle bars, a multithrow crankshaft for reciprocating said needle bars in a plurality of phases, a plurality of loopers for respectively cooperating with the individual needles, said loopers being mounted to oscillate as a single unit without phase displacement, a plurality of cutter members mounted to move into cutting relationship with the loopers, and driving means for moving the loopers and cutters at an oscillation frequency which is equal to the product of the crankshaft frequency multiplied by the number of phases of the needle bars, whereby each looper makes an operative stroke each time the corresponding needle is at the end of its advancing stroke, and in addition it makes at least one idle oscillation while the said needle is away from its fully advanced position.

4. A tufting machine comprising a plurality of needle bars, needles on said needle bars, a multithrow crankshaft for reciprocating said needle bars in two phases 180 apart, a plurality of loopers for respectively cooperating with the individual needles, said loopers being mounted to oscillate as a single unit without phase displacement, a plurality of cutting members mounted to move into cutting relationship with the loopers, and driving means for moving the loopers and cutters at an oscillation frequency which is equal to twice the crankshaft frequency, whereby each looper makes an operative stroke each time the corresponding needle is at the end of its advancing stroke, and in addition it makes one idle oscillation while the said needle is away from its fully advanced position.

5. A tufting machine comprising a plurality of needle bars, needles on said needle bars, a multithrow crankshaft for reciprocating said needle bars in three phases apart, a plurality of loopers for respectively cooperating with the individual needles, said loopers being mounted to oscillate as a single unit without phase displacement, a plurality of cutter members mounted to move into cutting relationship with the loopers, and driving means for moving the loopers and cutters at an oscillation frequency which is equal to three times the crankshaft frequency, whereby each looper makes an operative stroke each time the corresponding needle is at the end of its advancing stroke, and in addition it makes two idle oscillations while the said needle is away from its fully advanced position.

LESLIE MARK BALLAMY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,091,062 Hohmann Mar. 24, 1914 2,214,767 Kenner, Sr., et a1. Sept. 17, 1940 2,217,967 Phillips Oct. 15, 1940 2,411,267 Hamrick Nov. 19, 1945 

